622 Vie'w of the Progress of Gardening, 



in a great measure, the high prices hitherto charged for those 

 trees and shrubs which are not generally planted. It is true 

 that this high price is partly, also, occasioned by the little demand 

 that there is for many articles which first-rate nurserymen are 

 still obliged to keep ; and this little demand must be attributed 

 partly to the want of taste in country gentlemen for trees and 

 shrubs, and partly to a want of knowledge of them among gar- 

 deners. During the past year we certainly think that we have 

 seen symptoms of a change in these matters. Two lists have ap- 

 peared in the present volume of this Magazine, p. 163. and 567., 

 both furnished by eminent London nurserymen, in which the 

 prices for ready money, or payment at the end of the year, are 

 as low as they can possibly be desired. In consequence of such 

 lists being made generally known, we have no doubt the taste 

 for planting rare trees and shrubs will rapidly increase ; and 

 nurserymen will find that, by calculating on small profits and 

 extensive sales, they will be greater gainers than by relying on 

 high prices and select purchasers at indefinite credits. This, 

 indeed, is the spirit of the age, which it is in vain, for any person 

 that would live and thrive, long to resist. In consequence of the 

 stimulus given to the culture of superior varieties of culinary 

 vegetables, and annual and biennial flowers, throughout the 

 country, by the horticultural societies, the demand for seeds 

 has increased, and also that for flowering bulbs, the quantity of 

 which imported annually from Holland has greatly augmented. 

 Since the general peace, British nurserymen have been enabled 

 to extend their connexions abroad, very much tc their own 

 advantage, and not less so, we believe, to that of their brethren 

 in other countries. A number of new azaleas, and other Ame- 

 rican shrubs and trees, and new varieties of fruit trees, have 

 been imported from Belgium ; many new roses and orange trees 

 from France ; and many flowers, such as Dutch anemones, &c., 

 from Holland, and other countries ; while many camellias, and 

 other showy or rare house plants, have been sent in return from 

 Britain to France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany ; and even to 

 Italy, Sweden, and Russia. The commerce carried on between 

 British and American seedsmen is greatly on the increase ; and 

 there is also a considerable demand both for seeds and plants 

 from Australia. In this way, if the domestic commerce of nurse- 

 rymen has diminished, their foreign connexions have increased ; 

 and, by the extension of a knowledge of the new plants of this 

 country through the botanical periodicals, we have no doubt it 

 will continue to increase rather than diminish. The practice of 

 sending out collectors to foreign countries, by nurserymen, has 

 been on the increase, since the London Horticultural Society, 

 from its crippled means, has been obliged to give up that part 

 of its exertions. From collectors sent out by nurserymen, 



